Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. American Psychological Association (2013), "the discipline embraces all aspects of the human experience — from the functions of the brain to the actions of nations, from child development to care for the aged" (para. 1). American Psychological Association (2013), "in every conceivable setting from scientific research centers to mental health care services, "the understanding of behavior" is the enterprise of psychologists" (para. 1).

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Friday, December 14, 2012

To what extent do you agree with the notion that language develops according to a Language Acquisition Device, as postulated by Noam Chomsky? How do you think toddlers develop complex language skills so quickly?

The process by which one learns a native language or second
language is language acquisition. I do agree to a that language develops
according to a Language Acquisition Device (LAD). Noam Chomsky's belief,
differed from B.F. Skinner's belief that language is acquired through imitation
and reinforcement. Noam Chomsky suggests that language in an inherent human
quality and that children are born with a language acquisition device that
allows them to produce language once they have learned the necessary vocabulary
(Cherry, 2012). Therefore, he believed one is born with a Language Acquisition
Device (LAD).
Cherry (2012), "researchers have found that
language development begins before a child is even born, as a fetus is able to
identify the speech and sound patterns of the mother's voice" (p.
4). After children are born they go through different stages as one
develops language. The first stage is the prelinguistic, babbling or
cooing stage, occurring between the ages of 3 and 9 months. The
second stage is one-word or holophase stage of language
development, occurring near the ages of 10 to 13 months. The
third stage is the two word sentences stage, occurring around the age of 18
months. The fourth stage or multi-word sentence stage, occurs around the age of
two. While child ages, one continues to learn more new words every day,
and by the time one enters school near the age of five, one typically has a
vocabulary of 10,000 words or more (Cherry, 2012).